States Attempt to Move Forward With Pro-Immigrant Legislation

While President Obama’s expanded DACA and DAPA programs remain temporarily blocked by a court order and pending review before the U.S. Supreme Court, states, like California, have undertaken efforts to address the country’s broken immigration system.

Among them, California has led the way in enacting immigrant friendly legislation. Weinberg Roger & Rosenfeld summarized some of these developments in the following articles:

California and Texas have now introduced bills aimed at providing work authorization to undocumented workers living and working in their states.

In California, AB 20, the “Undocumented Workers: California Agricultural Act,” would establish a state-run guest worker program to provide work authorization to undocumented agricultural workers living and working in the state. Although the bill was introduced last year and has been amended several times, it has not yet been enacted. However, even if California enacts AB 20, it would likely be struck down as unconstitutional because the federal government has the exclusive authority to decide immigration policy—including who can remain and lawfully work in the U.S.